TACO TUESDAYS

I'm sure you've noticed on my menu posts that we eat a lot of tacos. Actually, we have them every Tuesday. It makes menu planning a little easier to have every Tuesday already figured out. Plus, I do all the cooking ahead of time and only have to do a little chopping, slicing and grating in order to feed my family.

Another thing I like about Taco Tuesday is that everyone can eat however they want. Tim likes to put a hard shell (though we don't always have them around) inside a regular tortilla and load up all the fillings. Silas likes to pile everything except cilantro and lettuce on a tortilla and roll it up. Devon likes to put everything except meat and lettuce on his plate and eat it with a fork, occasionally eating a plain tortilla on the side. Naomi piles everything in a bowl, mixes it up and digs in. I usually put my tortilla on the plate, pile on a bunch of lettuce, then do the other toppings over that. It's like a tostada meeting a taco salad.

Anyway, I thought I'd tell you what Taco Tuesday involves at our house. Maybe you'll find some inexpensive and tasty recipes to use the next time you make tacos.

* meat - I buy a three pound package of ground turkey and cook it all up at once, using this homemade taco seasoning at the end. After it's cooked I divide it into three quart-sized freezer bags and pop them in the freezer for future Taco Tuesdays.

* beans - I make a double batch of the best beans in the world, which also happen to be really easy because they're in a crockpot. Then I fill up more quart-sized freezer bags with the cooked beans and pop them in the freezer My preferred way to make them is half pinto, half black, chopped onion, occasional jalapenos that are finely diced, and water. Yum!

* lentils & rice - I don't make lentils and rice every week, but often enough that it needs to go on this list. I sometimes use it in place of the meat or beans or to stretch the food a little farther when we have company. I've been known to be too lazy to measure out the spices and just dump some of that homemade taco seasoning in the pot instead. I'm not a huge lentil eater, but these are good.

* cheese, tomatoes, olives, cilantro, sour cream, salsa

And when you feel particularly lazy and don't feel like doing such an easy meal, then you dump a bunch of tortilla chips in a baking dish, load it up with toppings, pop it in the oven, then enjoy nachos.

And if you're even lazier, then you do "taco bowls", piling each person's bowl with the fillings they like and handing them a fork.